Gopi Krishna B1 , Lakshmi Narayana Reddy I2 , Ravi Prabhu G3
BACKGROUND: Family welfare services prevent one third of all maternal deaths by allowing women to delay motherhood, space births, avoid unintended pregnancies & unsafe abortions and stop child bearing when they have reached their desired family size. However, national-level surveys show that the adoption of contraceptive methods for spacing has remained low in India. In this context, this present study was conducted to find out the awareness and practice of temporary contraceptive methods among the eligible couples and its association with certain socio-demographic factors. MATERIAL & METHODS: This present study is a cross sectional analytical study carried out in the Pakala Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh among 6,206 eligible couples during January to June 2015. The findings were analysed using Epiinfo software 7 version (CDC, Atlanta, USA). RESULTS: The awareness regarding oral contraceptive pills (56.4%) and intrauterine devices (50.0) was found to be relatively higher compared to other methods and least with injectable contraceptives (6.8%). The oral contraceptive pill was found to be the most preferred method of contraception (5.7%) followed by intrauterine devices (4.4%) while condom usage was the least preferred method (1.9%). The health worker was the most common person providing motivation for family planning (65.0%) followed by friends and neighbours (25.9%). Overall, the temporary contraceptive usage was found to be 12.0%. The adoption was found to be significantly higher in 31 & above years (13.0%), business occupation of husband (15.2%), Hindus (12.6%) and backward classes (13.1%). CONCLUSIONS: In depth studies are required to explore the reasons behind non-adoption of spacing methods of contraception in order to promote contraception and reduce fertility.
